Topic: Whats the secret to flush rivets

Hi Guys

At that point 'again' on my Spitty and thought that this time round I would try putting rivets on.

I belive most if not all of the rivets on a MK IX Spitfire are the flush type.

I made up a little contraption with my soldering iron and the smallest piece of brass tube I could find. I then proceeded to try and burn the rivets on. Fortunately I did it only on the bottom centre section. I have stopped for two reasons.

1. The rivets looks way too large even though I got the smallest brass tube I could find of 1.6mm.
2. It is remarkabke how inconsistent I have made them using the same method, in some cases burning through the primer and well into the wood. I must admit I was putting a little pressure as just putting the tip on the primer wasn't having much effect.

I think I need to get a more potent soldering iron, this one is not that great.

I have made up a little jig with the holes equally spaced to allow me to get some sort of consistency and spaced so the edge goes on the panel line to give spacing away from that.

So, question is, what is the best way to do this?

Looking forward to your replies.

Cheers

Luis

Full-size flush rivets are around 1/4" diameter........so a 1.6mm tube will create a 1/4 scale rivet.......hence why they look BIG on your Top Flite spitty..................(I've only used 1.6mm tube on the Skyraider.....at 30% scale !!)

As for technique.......if you are going through the primer, glass & into the wood, you are applying WAY too much heat & pressure......you just 'dab' the tip onto the surface, literally just with the weight of the iron, and no more.......you also have to be petty fast about it....even a cool iron left on the surface too long will burn in too much.

What wattage iron are you using?......I use a small 30W iron with good results. The hotter it is, the shorter time is required in contact with the surface, so a larger 60/80W iron will really burn the surface as you're not able to 'bad' fast enough to prevent it.

Also....don't worry about slight inconsistency......not all rivets show the same once painted over on the fullsize....hence, I don't worry is some come out as full circles, others are 1/2's etc etc. If they all come out the same, it looks 'fake'.....I also find once into a rhythm, spacing by eye is acceptable, I've never used a spacing jig.

HTH.

Phil

Hi Luis

I don’t want to dampen your enthusiasm, but if your model were the top flight Spitfire at 63 inch’s then I probably wouldn’t bother doing any rivets just stick to panel lines and maybe the large fasteners.  I think less is more on smaller scale models having said that I’ve never seen a 1/8-1/7 model with a full set of rivets so it may look really good.  Whatever you decide hope it goes well.   

Here’s some photos of my TF Spitfire.  I started to do some rivets then decided against it (I had to do a few lines because I started), I just did the fasteners and panel lines.  Once it was painted I dry brushed the whole thing in silver.




Alex

Thanks for the input guys. I ended up canning that idea. It seems that my soldering iron is dreadfully inconsistent. Sometimes it bruns the primer at the slightest touch and then 3 rivets later, nothing?

Bascially this Spit is a practise for my later models, being the first warbird I started building. Wayne (Death from Above) has the most amazing Top Flite P-40 with rivets et al. Looks absolutely brilliant.

Your Spitty looks real nice their Alex. Good job.

I think on my P-40 I will do rivets, but I think most of those are domed so it wil be easier to apply. I'll take a leafout of Wayne's book on that one.

Cheers

I managed to make a little tool that is made of copper this time and is 0.5mm dia internally and 1mm diameter externally. Just tried it out to check and not too happy with that either. The rivet sizes look much better, but in some places the centre section bubbles up spoiling the effect whereas in other places it looks spot on.

Gonna give it up as an experience to remember now.